One of the oldest windows at Cathedral Church of the Advent, Jesus with a crown of thorns, has a bullet hole covered with a Band-Aid. (From "Witnesses to the Light")

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Cathedral Church of the Advent now has a coffee table book about its architecture, stained-glass windows and timeline that may rank as one of the most impressive parish histories ever written.

"Witnesses to the Light: An Adventure into God's Workmanship Past, Present and Future," was written and compiled by the Rev. John Harper, who was interim dean of Cathedral Church of the Advent in 2004-05.

The Rev. John Harper wrote "Witnesses to the Light," a history of Cathedral Church of the Advent. (File)

"It took me two and a half years," Harper said. "It has been a labor of love. It has been a joy from the very beginning. Anytime you start to do something for the Lord, it works that way."

The 290-page book, nine by 12 inches with full-color photography, documents every window in the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama. It also features every priest who served as dean or rector, and explanations for the needlepoint artwork and designs in the wood such as the altar shields.

The first 500 copies of the book, printed in time for Christmas 2013, sold out. Another printing is on order. The book sells for $50. Because of its glossy production, it cost $37 per book to print. Any proceeds go to fund the mission work of Advent Cathedral.

"It all goes to outreach," Harper said. "I love it that way."

Michael Hawkins, a 1985 graduate of the University of Montevallo, did all the photography, graphics and layout for the book.

Some of the stained-glass windows are nearly impossible to photograph.

"The Advent is seven stories high," Harper said. For the Trinity window featured on page 152, Hawkins used an extended tripod with a computerized remote control to get the picture.

"It's the kind of book that 15 or 20 years ago you just couldn't have done it," Harper said.

There were some surprises in the hard-to-get-to windows, such as one of the church's oldest windows, Jesus with a crown of thorns, featured on page 68.

"There is a bullet hole in that window," Harper said. "One of the sextons put a Band-Aid over it. It's still there. We have no idea how the bullet hole got there."

The timeline for 1890 talks about the controversial fundraising for the cathedral while it was under construction. Women of the church sponsored an event featuring the dances of different nations. That stirred the ire of Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians.

The cover of "Witnesses to the Light."

The Alabama Methodist Christian Advocate wrote an editorial saying that a church that "will do such things for the purpose of raising money is rotten at the very core, and ought to be stamped out of existence by the aroused righteous indignation of an outraged public." A ministers' meeting in Birmingham endorsed the editorial. The Birmingham News covered the dance and wrote a rebuttal to critics, saying there was "not as much evil" in the dance as in the "bit of bigotry" displayed in its denunciation.

George Ward and his wife, Margaret Ketcham Ward, moved to Birmingham in 1872 from Rome, Ga., joined the Advent and managed the Relay House, a hotel at the corner of Morris Avenue and 19th Street North. The hotel hosted U.S. Senate committee hearings in 1883 on the relationship of blacks and whites, before, during and after the Civil War. Mrs. Ward was the star witness. Her testimony was republished in 2011 and is available as "War Memories," by Margaret Ketcham Ward. Her testimony was first published in book form in 1923 by her son, former Birmingham Mayor George B. Ward. Margaret Mitchell, author of "Gone With the Wind," wrote Ward a letter saying, "I think your mother's testimony is undoubtedly the most perfect and valuable and complete picture of a long gone day that I have come across in ten years of research into the sixties. If I had had that book, I am sure I would not have had to read hundreds of memoirs, letters and diaries to get the background of 'Gone With the Wind' in accurately. Moreover, the character of your mother, her wit, her common sense, her charm simply leap from the pages. How I wish I could have known her!"

Harper has filled the pages of "Witnesses" with details that bring to life the city of Birmingham, a history intimately intertwined with the cathedral. Former Cathedral Dean Paul Zahl sent Harper a note when he received his copy on Dec. 26: "It is - and the word is completely not an exaggeration - Amazing! I am totally in awe."